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Commonwealth act
This is Australia's main content classification law — the system that puts ratings like G, PG, M, MA 15+, R 18+, X 18+ on movies, G through R 18+ on video games, and Unrestricted through RC (Refused Classification) on publications like magazines.
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Direct links to the current provisions in Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995.
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View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
This law is the reason a 15-year-old can't legally buy an MA 15+ game without an adult, why some violent or explicit content is banned outright, and why you can trust that rating on a movie case. It's a cooperative national scheme — the Commonwealth sets the classification rules, but States and Territories enforce them through their own laws (meaning the penalties for selling unclassified content sit in different legislation).
⚠️ Important limitation: This Act creates the classification decisions — it does not directly create offences for selling wrongly-rated content. Those consequences live in each State and Territory's own laws.